The Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC) recently released its annual report for 2018, marking the state’s second-best year in a decade for the number of new jobs attached to announced project wins.

That’s just part of the good news reflected in the EDPNC’s latest annual report, which looks at our role and results in recruiting new corporate facilities to North Carolina, supporting the expansion of existing businesses, helping businesses increase their export sales, promoting the growth of our tourism industry, counseling startups and more.

These areas are all important engines of the state’s economy, and we’re privileged to be part of a collaborative statewide economic development team. Consider some of what we celebrate together in the EDPNC’s 2018 annual report:

The EDPNC closed deals on 143 new or expanded corporate facilities, expected to create 19,541 new jobs and $3.53 billion in investment. The 2018 jobs tally nearly matches the 19,999 state-supported jobs announced in 2017, making these two years the best in the state over the past decade.

Our international trade team supported the exporting activity of 592 businesses located in 94 counties, and those businesses reported $958 million in export sales for the year.

Record visitor spending in North Carolina continued in 2017, touching all 100 counties and boding well for more of the same when the 2018 numbers are available in May.

Our small-businesses counseling team handled more than 23,000 cases of guiding entrepreneurs on how to establish a business in North Carolina.

Project wins over the past two years are expected to create nearly 40,000 new jobs in North Carolina: 2017 and 2018 are the state’s best years for state-supported job announcements over the past decade.

Such strong results across all our economic development activities help sustain and grow employment in North Carolina. To fuel that momentum for years to come, we need to be creative and innovative. Innovation, in fact, is the theme of our 2018 report. What are some of the things we did differently last year?

We opened North Carolina’s first office in India dedicated to attracting foreign direct investment from one of the fastest-growing source markets for investment into the U.S.

We established the state’s first trade office in the Middle East, offering a full suite of support services to North Carolina businesses exporting to Gulf nations.

Our tourism marketing division launched its award-winning “Firsts That Last” advertising campaign, where camera crews documented families and couples visiting North Carolina for the first time to have first-in-their-lifetime vacation experiences here.

We convened local economic developers and civic leaders from 70 counties across the state for a two-day conference examining how to advance five pillars of prosperity in rural communities – infrastructure, health, education, workforce development and local leadership.